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Microsoft has completed the global release of the new SharePoint Online Admin Center that is easily accessible from the classic SPO Admin Center. The new interface doesn’t have all of functionality that the classic admin center has, so you’ll have to do some toggling between the two interfaces depending on what task you’re trying to complete. To move to new Admin Center there will be a banner across the top that announces it and on the far right there is a button called Try it Now. To return back to the classic SharePoint Online Admin center you can click on the Classic SharePoint admin center option located in the left… Read More

This month Microsoft released SharePoint Server 2019 Cumulative Update (CU): January 2019 CU. The installation of these CUs requires you to have the release version of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2019 installed on your SharePoint servers. SharePoint is patched with a language dependent and a language independent fix. This month Microsoft released the first language dependent fix, another language independent fix, and the first CU for Office Online Server 2019. You can obtain additional information about what fixes are included, and where to download them from, by clicking on the KB articles below. KB 4461634 – January 2019 Update for SharePoint Server 2019 (language independent) – Also a security update! KB 4461514 – January 2019 Update… Read More

Last month Microsoft released the first SharePoint Server 2019 Cumulative Update (CU): November 2018 (CU). The installation of this CU (KB4461513) requires that you have the release version of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2019 installed on your SharePoint servers. You can download the November 2018 CU from the following site: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=57551 KB4461513 includes a security that resolves vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office that could allow remote code execution if a user opens specific Office files. After installing the fixes and security updates contained in the November 2018 CU, you will need to run the SharePoint 2019 Products Configuration Wizard on each server in the SharePoint farm to complete the update of your… Read More

Microsoft recently announced the retirement of two Office 365 exams; 70-346 and 70-347, which are scheduled to retire on March 31, 2019. These two exams have been around for quite some time and if you pass both of them you obtain your Office 365 MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) which will remain relevant for an undetermined amount of time after the exams are retired. The Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements (70-346) exam contains the following topic areas: Additional information about this exam and the retirement of the exam can be found at this location: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-70-346.aspx The Enabling Office 365 Services (70-347) exam contains the following topic areas: Managing… Read More

Microsoft made several announcements at the SharePoint Conference North America in Las Vegas last month, and one of the biggest announcements was regarding what is new in SharePoint Server 2019 including the changes made to OneDrive for Business. I’d like to take a few moments to introduce the changes made in OneDrive so you’ll have an idea of what to expect when working with OneDrive in SharePoint Server 2019. One of the first things you’ll notice is a cleaner and simpler user interface. The new interface makes locating and accessing your files much easier. Speaking of files in OneDrive; a major feature of OneDrive is the ability to sync files… Read More

If you weren’t able to attend Microsoft Ignite 2018, as I wasn’t, there were a lot of great announcements by Microsoft in all product areas. I’ve done some research and pulled together the highlights of the announcements and in this blog post I’m going to focus on the key announcement areas specific to SharePoint Online, and the associated Microsoft online services. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot announced about SharePoint Server 2019. NOTE: Not all of these announced features and capabilities are in production at this point and time. The expected release date for these features and capabilities is between 2018 Q4 and by the end of the first half of… Read More

Microsoft recently announced a free version of Microsoft Teams, their competing product with Slack, and a very powerful product I might add, that is now available for free, or in monetary terms $0.00. This offering by Microsoft is providing an opportunity for users who haven’t explore Microsoft Teams to now explore at no cost, with the hope of enticing you into purchasing it after you see what it has to offer and how beneficial it can be to your organization. You haven’t heard of Microsoft Teams? Well then I suggest you see what you’re missing by visiting this Microsoft Teams site. Microsoft Teams has exploded over the past… Read More

Microsoft holding to it’s commitment of releasing SharePoint Server 2019 Preview in early summer announced the release of it on July 24th. If you haven’t read what is contained in SharePoint Server 2019, please review my early blog post titled; SharePoint Server 2019: What you can expect that discusses the expected enhancements, new features and functionality, as well as what has been removed from this version of SharePoint on-premises. In addition to SharePoint Server 2019 Preview, Project Server 2019 Preview was also released as announced by Senior Technical Product Manager of SharePoint; Bill Baer. He categorizes the enhancements and new capabilities of SharePoint Server 2019 Preview into three primary areas:… Read More

Microsoft made several announcements at the SharePoint Conference North America in Las Vegas last week, and one of the biggest announcements that everyone wants to hear about is; what is happening with SharePoint Server 2019. Well, I have some hot-off-the-press information about what Microsoft is saying we can expect in SharePoint Server 2019. Microsoft Senior Product Manager Bill Baer delivered a session the first day of the conference to share the exciting news about what’s in store for SharePoint on-premises Admins, and developers. We can summarize it in one word: Modern. I’ll be focusing on the IT Pro information, but provide a smidge of developer info, and I will begin… Read More

Online Training Videos Sign up for a free 1 month trial subscription at Pluralsight using code 607-2213-JQZ4-7FRA to view my SharePoint, SharePoint Online, and Office 365 courses available from Pluralsight. Sign up for a free trial subscription at Pearson to view my Windows Server Identity with Windows Server 2016 course available from Pearson. Sign up for a free trial subscription at LinkedIn to view my course on Migrating from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016. You can also view this course on Lynda.com. Please visit the Microsoft Virtual Academy to view my Microsoft SharePoint and SQL Server courses. You can visit the ComputerWorld site to view my monthly SharePoint blogs. Thanks for visiting! Brian